The Vine

Refugee Presentation

This week on Monday at lunch time we were very fortunate to have 2 refugees from Iraq come and share their story with our Year 12 Health and Human Development and Global Politics classes. The mother, Siham and her daughter, Farah, were displaced for 19 years until they arrived in Australia last year. Siham told students of her difficult decision to flee Iraq to escape the war so as to try to give her children a better life.

They sold all their possessions and fled to Jordan, where they lived as illegal immigrants for 7 years. When Jordanian authorities managed to find their location, they would have to flee in fear, leaving the simple home that they had created with the belongings that they had accumulated to start all over again!

They then moved to Malaysia where their son was granted a student visa, to arrive and discover that the educational course was in fact a scam. They lost a large sum of money in the venture. They then applied to the United Nations and they were granted refugee status in Australia.

Students were really touched by Siham and Farah’s difficult life. To put a face to people’s real struggles as refugees was very powerful. It gave students an empathy that some commented that they did not have prior to hearing their story.